Bang & Olufsen
boesystem 2000
Mini Systems

Product Description

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
David Boston
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: March 6, 2011

Bottom Line:

I have been using the beosound 2000 for over ten years and i thought it was expensive for a small compact stereo.
I think all the so called Boom boxes have so many sound distorting filters that we forget what a good clear sound (sounds like.
I wish the 2000 had a sub woofer link but the bass is very good and the unit is stunning.
for my taste in music(70s music) it has been a joy to listen too.
Never one problem in over ten years.
Very beautiful looking too.
I think it is heavy because it is made very well and i would never part with it.
Very good quality !! As a second system or a nice personal stereo nothing compares at all.
very happy with it and will buy another B&O product. Clever dynamic little stereo !! David Boston ma : )

Let me just start out by saying the other people are correct. This system is a beautiful creation. However, that is where my comments divert from the others. I don't comprehend the criticims of this unit's sound. The B&O line is unquestionably the best sounding audio equipment that has been created to this date, when compared to something like a Wave Radio, the B&O is overwhelmingly a better quality of product. The System does lack the bass of tower speakers, but let's not forget that the sound is coming from a 3 1/2 in. woofer in these units.
I have 2 other B&O units, a Beosound 1 and a Beosystem 2500. The Beosound 2000 is another in the fantastic line of B&O products.

What i have is the Beosound circa 1995. Buy this for what it is -- an ancillary system. It will never quite satisfy the aspirations of the pure audio enthusiast -- sound for sound's sake & learn to love it's ugliness. Face it; would a non-audio oriented person love the looks of your system? You know what it does and can love it; but someone who is not aware of, or who just doesn't care about that? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... Put another way -- an audio system is a tool, a means to an end -- and there's beauty in a well-realized example of that -- but you wouldn't keep a chainsaw in your living room or park your car there. So face it: if you're even considering B&O it means you are interested in it's looks. The question is, how much does that factor into your budget? Also, to what end or ends is this single piece of equipment going to serve? One end this piece served for me is a music source. When i moved into a smaller home with two young children i felt that my time in a dedicated listening-room situation would be limited. I was right. As well, the number of cables & interconnects in my seperates-system with floor standing speakers would tempt my toddler. My main system was too big for the new living room anyway. And yet there must be an alternative to TV. Don't I have a responsibility to have music available to my children? It's a living room -- & what's living without music? Yet i realize it will spend a lot of time sitting there switched off -- so better have it easy on the eyes. It looks like a piece of sculpture, & integrates well with a modern, minimalist decorative scheme. But why not pay some attention to this piece's placement, as you would any audio speaker? That can do much to address it's audio shortcomings. I have mine situated in a corner of the room on a small table which raises the unit approximately 3 ft., and the edges of it's rectangular form are about 2"- 4" from either wall. It rests in it's resin holder, which tilts it back at a slight angle as well. The preferred listening space is seated across the room, which in this case means approx.12 -14 ft. away, with my ears slightly less than level with the B&O. This essentially yields a slightly indirect, reflected sound; best for pure listening at 48-56 on it's digital volume indicator (out of 70 i believe -- and i can't believe a unit this size can put out that kind of volume!). If i were sitting or lying on the couch adjacent to the unit this volume sould be too high however. What i like about the B&O is that listening position/ "sweet spot" is not critical -- it sounds good anywhere in the room. It does not deliver an etched soundstage or 3D stereo image -- for that my main sytem is what i use. But that also puts me in seclusion from the family -- not always an option or a desire (sometimes a necessity of course!). I have come to prefer what the B&O does however for different recordings. I find it useful for older recordings with extreme stereo separation -- i can't stand when drums for instance, are mixed to one channel or the other. In these sort of recordings the B&O gives a nice overall soundscape. Older mono recordings as well -- in my main system i must sit in the sweetspot or there's a slightly out-of-phase sound. (i am not an equipment snob either -- i have Radio Shack Linaem tweeter speakers for the TV's DVD player, and they perform quite well and are excellent for mono recordings too, due to their 360 degree dispersion). I have since bought some older B&O speakers used & can comment on the "B&O sound". Non-fatiguing. "Mild" & "Sweet". These are subjective of course, but there is a similar quality to the sound reproduced by the Beosound 2000 (or Beosound Century) & the RL1000's i have connected to a TEAC micro system (to match the B&O's power handling). The latter sytem does sound better than the Beosound; but not as convenient in set-up nor as beautiful as a living room piece. Instead it's what i use to listen to music while at the computer! You ARE buying in equal parts Art when you buy B&O. Just don't make the Beosound 2000 your only system if you really want the art of recorded music reproduction.

I was looking for a minisystem to complement my main system so portability was important. I must say that the B&O is one of the coolest looking musical devices I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, upon listening to it I was sorely disspapointed. I have heard $400 ghetto blasters that sound better. Now I would pay a few hundred bucks on top of the audio value of the unit for the 'cool factor' but from what I can see, the cool factor costs north of $1000. No thank you.

The BeoSound 2000 currently retails for $1900. Before listening to the unit, I already knew that Bang & Olufsen is more of a leader in aesthetics and gadgetry (e.g., sliding glass doors) than sound quality. Nevertheless, I expected that, at two grand, the BeoSound 2000 would sound better than any other minisystem, and that it would, at the very least, be easy to listen to. In fact, it fell short in both areas. Describing the sound of the 2000 is difficult. Certainly, it is lacking in bass, but that is not all. Many small speakers lack bass punch, yet sound excellent at the top end. This was not the case with the BeoSound 2000. The whole sound spectrum sounded muddied. It was as if I was listening to music on an average CD player, with an average D/A converter, an average amp, and average speakers. Perhaps that is what I was listening to, but at $1900, I expected something above average. Even CDs that sound good on just about every system I have played them on (including James Netwon Howard's score for "Intersection" and Joni Mitchell's "Turbulent Indigo") lacked musicality on the BeoSound. This was what I found most disappointing; not only was the sound quality less than what I expected, but the unit wasn't even pleasurable to listen to.

I compared the BeoSound 2000 to the BeoCenter 2300 (with BeoLab 2500 loudspeakers attached), and concluded that the latter system was superior. But at $3000, you are still buying aesthetics over sonic quality.